WMS
The Battalion
Vol. 71 No. 169
8 Pages
Thursday, June 29, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Thursday:
High school students on campus this
week for communications workshop
— p. 3.
More on the Bakke decision — p. 7.
Aggie baseball players Mark Thur
mond and Kyle Hawthorne in Japan
— p. 8.
Court says Bakke
must be admitted
Battalion photo by Pat O'Malley
inority enrollment low
Recruiting efforts have little effect
By FLA VIA KRONE
Battalion Campus Editor
Minority enrollment at Texas A&M
ijversity remains low despite wide-
read recruitment efforts by University
feials, Dean of Admissions and Records
Iwin Cooper said.
Minorities make up about 2 percent of
ie total student enrollment at Texas
kM, according to figures released by the
Mstrar’s Office.
■he Registrar’s Office recorded the fol-
■ng minority enrollment figures for the
all 1977 semester:
Ill
Srican Indian 231
Intal ; 138
pish-Surname 244
he minority enrollment figures do not
hide foreign students. There are about
foreign students on campus as corn-
fed to about 724 American minority
idents.
These figures represent only rough es
tates of the true minority population at
xas A&M, Cooper said. The inaccuracy
iults from the method by which minor-
| enrollment statistics are gathered,
oper said.
To defend our position of being un-
ised in our admissions procedures.
about eight years ago we removed all indi
cations of race from our applications for
admission,” Cooper said. Instead, stu
dents are requested to volunteer minority
status information at registration time.
“There is no way that this information
can be verified for accuracy,” Cooper said.
A request for racial identification was
put back on Texas A&M applications for
admission beginning with fall 1977 applica
tions, according to Cooper. Requests by
the federal government for minority
enrollment figures prompted the move.
“We feel that the figures we get at ad
mission time are more reliable than those
received at registration,” Cooper said.
Minority status information received at
the application stage also aids recruitment
efforts by University officials, Cooper said.
“Just because a person applies to Texas
A&M doesn’t mean he will come here,”
Cooper said. “If we want to make special
efforts to recruit minorities we need to
know where they are, and the application
gives us this information.”
The main thrust of Texas A&M’s re
cruitment program involves sending rep
resentatives to high school “college night
programs. Cooper said.
From September 1976 to March 1977
Texas A&M representatives from the Of
fice of Admissions and Records visited
!ampus job vacancies
)ecome harder to fill
about 240 high schools and junior colleges
in the state and interviewed about 10,173
prospective students.
Texas A&M alumni also help recruiters
by participating in a High School Relations
Program, Cooper said. Alumni act as
liaison between Texas A&M and commu
nity high schools and refer outstanding
high school students to the Office of Ad
missions and Records.
As of fall 1977 every state in the nation
and all but three Texas Counties were rep
resented by students enrolled at Texas
A&M.
Despite these recruitment efforts
minority enrollment at Texas A&M re
mains low.
“When you get down to basics there are
only two really effective recruiting
methods, Cooper said. “One is to get
people to the campus to show them what
it’s like. The second is word-of-mouth ad
vertising by the prospective student’s peer
group. ”
“A student can go back home and tell his
friends about the dorms, the quality of the
food, the classes and the type of people
here,” Cooper said. “That’s what really
sells schools.”
The small minority population at Texas
A&M prohibits much peer group selling to
prospective minority students around the
state, Cooper said.
“Our minority student enrollment will
grow after we develop a nuclear minority
population on campus that can spread the
word, Cooper said.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ruled Allan
Bakke must be admitted to the University of California, but said
its future admissions programs can take race into account to
redress historic discrimination.
Bakke, a 38-year-old white engineer, had sued the UC medi
cal school at Davis because it denied him admission while admit
ting minority students with lower entrance exam scores. UC
Davis, under an affirmative action admissions program, had set
aside 16 of 100 openings for minority applicants.
It took the justices more than one hour to read their six sepa
rate opinions in the court’s historic, long-awaited ruling. A
hushed crowd packed into the ornate chamber.
In ruling Bakke must be admitted, the court said that although
the Davis special admissions program is invalid, the school may
use race as a factor in forming a new program.
The justices were divided. Five ruled Bakke must be admit
ted, but a second block of five also backed the concept of affirma
tive action.
Although they did not speak together in any one opinion.
Justice William Brennan said:
“This should not and must not mask the central meaning of
today’s opinions: Government may take race into account when
it acts not to demean or insult any racial group, but to remedy
disadvantages cast on minorities by past racial prejudice, at least
when appropriate findings have been made by judicial, legisla
tive or administrative bodies with competence to act in this
area.”
Justice Lewis Powell, writing the swing opinion, said Califor
nia courts, by barring consideration of race in admissions pro
grams, “failed to recognize that the state has a substantial inter
est that legitimately may be served by a properly devised admis
sions program involving the competitive consideration of race
and ethnic origin.”
And Justices Brennan, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall and
Harry Blackmun joined to say the decision “affirms the constitu
tional power of federal and state government to act affirmatively
to achieve equal opportunity for all.
Powell said the Davis program was unconstitutional and Bak-
ke’s admission must be upheld because after the California
courts had ruled in his favor, the university conceded it could
not prove Bakke still would have been barred had there been no
minority program.
Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices John Paul Stevens,
Potter Stewart and William Rehnquist said the program violated
a section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which bars discrimination
in federally-funded programs. Bakke should be admitted for that
reason, they said, since the Davis school gets federal funds.
But despite the technicality on this particular case, five jus
tices said the university had every right to consider ethnic back
ground in future admissions.
Powell said it is evident the Davis program involves use of an
explicit racial classification “never before countenanced by this
court.”
“It tells applicants who are not Negro, Asian or ‘Chicano’ that
they are totally excluded from a specific percentage of the seats
in an entering class,” he said.
The fatal flaw, the opinion said, is in the program’s “disregard
of individual rights as guaranteed by the 14th Amendement.
“Such rights are not absolute,” the opinion said, “but when a
state’s distribution of benefits or imposition of burdens hinges on
the color of a person’s skin or ancestry, that individual is entitled
to a demonstration that the challenged classification is necessary
to promote a substantial state interest.”
Marshall, the court’s first and only black, said in a separate
opinion that during most of the past 200 years constitutional
interpretations did not prohibit “the most ingenious and perva
sive forms of discrimination against the Negro.
“Now, when a state acts to remedy the effects of that legacy oi
discrimination, I cannot believe that this same Constitution
stands as a barrier.”
See related stories, page 7
Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices John Paul Stevens,
Potter Stewart and William Rehnquist said Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 prohibits programs such as that at the Davis
Medical School, and thus Bakke’s rights were violated and he
should be admitted.
Powell, saying race may be taken into account in university
admissions, said UC’s program did not stand up. This made a
five-man majority affirming the California Supreme Court’s rul
ing admitting Bakke.
Brennan, White, Marshall and Blackmun held the Davis pro
gram constitutional, and wanted to reverse the California court
on all points.
Powell joined with the Brennan group in saying that some
uses of race in university admissions are permissible — making
five votes to reverse the California court’s prohibition on the
university establishing race-conscious programs in the future.
He said an intent to discriminate is evident in the Davis pro
gram, whereas no such fault exists in a system whereby race or
ethnic background is simply one element, “to be weighed fairly
against other elements in the selection process.”
Marshall said while the case was viewed by some as involving
only Bakke and the University of California, he doubts “that
there is a computer capable of determining the number of per
sons and institutions that may be affected by today’s decision.”
u.s.
with
reporters charged
slander in Russia
United Press International
MOSCOW — Two American reporters
have been ordered to stand trial July 5 on
civil charges of slander brought against
them by the Soviet state committee for
radio and television.
Craig Whitney, 34, of the New York
Times, and Hal Piper, 39, of the Baltimore
Sun, spent 10 minutes before a Soviet
judge Wednesday and were told to return
to court Friday to file written responses to
the civil slander suit, and to be prepared
to go to trial July 5.
Soviet authorities originally ordered the
trial for July 4, but postponed it one day
when Whitney and Piper pointed out that
July 4 was a national holiday for Ameri
cans.
The television authorities brought the
case against Whitney and Piper in re
sponse to articles they wrote, quoting
Soviet dissidents as saying that they fabri
cated a filmed confession by Georgian dis
sident Zviad Gamsakhourdias.
Whitney told the Moscow court judge
that he had planned to be away on vacation
at the time set for trial.
The judge told him the authorities could
not order him to remain in the Soviet
Union in a civil case, but they hoped he
would appear for the trial July 5. They
pointed out that under Soviet law a trial
can proceed even if the defendant is not
By DEBBY KRENEK
Battalion Editor
; More than 150 full-time, non-faculty
positions on the Texas A&M University
’ are vacant. They have been for some
time.
| Job vacancies in the Texas A&M sys-
jfem arc becoming increasingly difficult to
Bl,” Jane Armstrong, employment man
ager in the personnel department, said.
(Armstrong is in charge of finding appli-
fcants for openings not only in departments
ion campus, but in the agricultural exten-
pion and experiment services, the Texas
veterinary Medicine Diagnostic Lab, the
Brest service and research foundation.
■ “We are not getting enough applicants
to fill all the jobs that are available, ”
rmstrong said. Vacancies are spread
roughout the University system; how-
jver, the majority of the vacancies are in
clerical and secretarial capacities in
ademic departments on the Texas A&M
mpus, she said.
The secretarial and clerical jobs on cam-
[pus are divided into three wage
ategories.
Clerk Typist I and Clerk I are paid the
ninimum wage. No previous experience is
equired for these positions. Applicants
nust only pass the typing and math tests
hat the personnel department gives to be
xmsidered for this position. Fifteen jobs
)resently are vacant in this category.
Secretary, Clerk Typist II and Clerk II
tfe paid $3.02 an hour. To be considered
or one of these positions, an applicant
nust show “good” typing or bookkeeping
skills as well as have one or two years ex
perience in this type of job. Fifty-six po
sitions are vacant in this category.
Senior Secretary and Clerk III are paid
$3.69 an hour. Applicants must display
exceptional” secretarial or bookkeeping
skills. The senior secretaries, who are usu
ally secretaries to department heads, must
type at least 60 words per minute and take
shorthand. Clerk III must have an exten
sive bookkeeping background. Three to
five years experience are required of these
applicants.
“The second area (Clerk and Clerk
Typist II) is the most critical,” Armstrong
said. She cited the competition for em
ployees from the Bryan-College Station
businesses coupled with the 2.2 percent
unemployment rate in the community as
the reason for the high number of va
cancies in this area.
“There are so few people with experi
ence in the area looking for jobs, and the
competition for labor with the community
is great because there are so many new
businesses opening,” Armstrong said.
“People come to work for the University,
gain a few years experience and then leave
the University for better paying jobs.
Once they have the experience they can
learn, for instance, to run a cash register
and make $4 or $5 an hour as a grocery
store cashier rather than the $3.02 an hour
the University pays.
“Also, many of the Clerk IIs move up to
the Clerk III positions after one to two
years. So keeping Clerk IIs is difficult,”
she said.
Meanwhile, some professors and de
partment heads are being forced to answer
phones and do other tasks around the of
fice that cut down on their actual work
time.
The waiting period to fill these non
faculty jobs used to be from one to two
weeks, Armstrong said. Now it has been
stretched to as long as six weeks.
Some departments have hired students
to fill these full-time positions for the
summer until someone can be hired on a
permanent basis for the fall, Armstrong
said. Students are not being considered for
these positions in the fall because they
cannot take classes and put in the 8 a. m.-5
p.m. day the jobs require since there are
very few night classes offered at A&M, she
added.
“The big point to be made here,” Ray
Smith, director of the personnel depart
ment, said, “is that whereas vacancies
used to be seasonal, they are now con
tinual.” And the situation is going to get
worse, he said.
(See LOCAL, page 3)
Dog Day
or just for the birds?
These Aggies seem to have a couple of interesting
companions. Patrick Childers, a horticulture
major, gives a lift to an unnamed friend he says is a
“double yellow-headed Amazon.” Meanwhile, ‘Use
less’ proves to be a real swinger with the help of a
Frisbee and owner David Woodin. Woodin is a
graduate student in biology.
Battalion photos by Pat O'Malley
physically present.
The summonses raised concern among
reporters in Moscow because it was feared
the Soviet Union may be starting to use
such cases to respond to any unfavorable
reporting. Such tactics could keep re
porters endlessly tied up in legal actions,
stifling their ability to cover news.
Piper said he and Whitney assume the
case involved stories they wrote in Max
from Tbilisi in Soviet Georgia quoting dis
sidents criticizing the televised confession
of human rights activist Zviad Gam
sakhourdias. The sources claimed the re
cantation was manufacturered.
Under the Soviet Criminal Code, pub
lishing a slander of a Soviet institution can
bring up to three years in prison, but the
corresponding article in the civil code was
not clear.
Illegally parked
police cars get
ticketed at hotel
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — Police Chief James
Parsons, cited for illegal parking with a
number of other policemen, admitted it
and apologized — then “went through the
roof when he heard his order against fu
ture illegal parking by police was ignored.
Larry Hardison, who works near the
Grand Hotel, tagged 19 police cars — all
of them illegally parked in a tow-away
zone — with letters Tuesday telling the
officers “one of the best ways to lose the
respect of citizens is to break the rules
which you enforce.”
One of the cars was Parsons’. When he
took office earlier this month, he vowed to
improve the image of the police force and
he apparently was embarrassed. Parsons
called Hardison immediately to apologize.
The police cars, parked outside the hotel
because of a seminar on homicide, were
moved.
Wednesday, however, more police cars
were parked illegally. This time, Hardison
called police to complain.
“The powers that be went through the
roof (when Hardison complained again)
and ordered that the cars be ticketed,”
said an officer who works with Parsons.
“And (he) said that if there are any cars
illegally parked there tomorrow, they’ll be
impounded.
Police spokesman Frank Hayward, who
said he also has parked illegally many
times at the hotel, said Parsons sent sev
eral motorcycle units to the area Tuesday
after Hardison’s complaint.
“Policemen are no different than any
body else,” he said. “The citizens park il
legally and I guess the cops thought they
could park illegally. And what about all of
those news cars I saw illegally parked
around there?”